Section
SANDY, OREGON,
' p i , THURSDAY,
I M U K W A T , JUNE
J U N t 18,
It}. 1981
IV ö I
The se ^ y P o st
Area News
M ike O lixe i . «enter, is one of tw o ap pre ntice bakers under Jack E lm e r, left. Olive« lea i lls the lin e ai I ol baking
al H eidi's Swiss Itaker«
m ake c a ra m e l rolls.
o il
his way tow ard his goal ol becom ing a jonruev man hakei
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'S ta ffin g from G§ c f a t c h
The day begins early al Heidi's Swiss Bakery in Boring Twoap
prentice bakers enter the quiet shop with other employees to begin
careful measuring and mixing in huge stainless steel bowls.
Using their hands almost exclusively, Mik«* Oliver and Trudy
Phillips blend Hour and shortening, chocolate and eggs and other
pure ingredients with a careful eye toward the final product
And Jack Elmer, their teacher, is never far away
The two novice bakers are learning to bake their daily bread,
pastries, cakes, pies and cookies as apprentices under the skillfull
tutelage ol the bakery's chef. Jacob "Jack” Elmer
Oliver's father also was taught to bake by Elmer Phillips chose
baking over an electrician's program because to lx* an electrician
"you have to go where there are spiders."
Every day the two apprentices help Elmer prepare his desserts
and breads tor the two Heidi s bakeries, one at the Swiss Village in
Boring and the other a, Heidi's Restaurant in Gresham
They are learning from scratch how to bake from scratch
"Basically we began at the very bottom," Elmer says of his
students "Too many get lost in the shuffle of wanting to be in
tricate cake decorators or fancy pastry chefs I demand that they
know th<* mathematics and the chemistry of baking too "
This means Elmer says, the beginning bakers w ill know what
will happen when they add an ingredient to a cake batter or a
pastry dough
"A good baker knows what is supposed to happen and if it doesn’t
why it didn't and how it can be correct«'«!." Elmer adds
By the tim«‘ they are done they will be journeymen bakers skilled
enough to work .it any bakery The two will not only have worked in
Heidi s bakery but also w ill have completed a three year program
of classes at Clark Community College in Vancouver. Wash
Elmer's skill as a pastry chef certainly qualifies him to teach
others Elmer received a degree in line pastry in Switzerland He
became part owner of the Boring bakery with Ihm and Marie
Eklund when the Swiss Village opened in 1972 and is owner of the
bakery in their Gresham restaurant For the past thr«*e years
Elmer has won top honors for his pastries in the Chefs de Cuisine
Society of Oregon competition, a prestigious competition among
Oregon chefs
"When you get trained by masters it's hard not to pick up that
craftsmanship, that feeling for p«'rfection," Elmer says
This isn't to say the apprentices don't make mistakes Once
Oliver mad«* about 40 apple pies, all about a half pound short on the
filling
"He (Elmer) jus, walked bv and lookfxl at them and said these
are wrong, do them over I did Every one of them." Oliver
" I was scared I didn’t know how Jack would take it Bu, after it
was all done he decided that was what should have been done,"
Oliver said, shaking his head "That day I was really skeptical
about what would happen the next day
I ha, Elmer w;yi,s to produce a quality product is one reason tioth
apprentices like working a, Heidi's
"The reason I stay here is he < Elmer) puts ou, a quality product
He makes from scratch, the correct way," Phillips says She com
mutes from Vancouver every day to Boring
V\hile working tor Elmer and in the apprenticeship program, the
two are paid at union seal«', although Elmer's is not a union bakery.
The pay ranges from $4 25 an hour to begin to more than $H when
they are through
" I try to demand they have a respect and love for the skill I am
not w illing to spend my time and their tune if they don’t want to be
dedicated," Elmer explains "They are not here to make a lot of
money They're with me because they know that they w ill learn the
skills so someday they can make a lot of money or run their own
bakeries."
remembers
Another time, though, the chocolate chip cookie batter wasn't ris
ing correctly when Elmer was away so Oliver to«>k it up«»n himself
to change flours
Ileidi's chef Jack Elm er has trained all his emplovees his baking
skills, including his two apprentices.
by Lori C a lliste r photos by K.J. Snipes
Tmdv Phillips wanted In gain a skill she could have all her lile so she chose baking Here E lm e r w at
ches as she carefully measures shmtening.